Anna Bouw-Bolik, President
Mihaela Bercea, Vice President
My name is Mihaela Bercea, I was born in Cluj and my most important values are honesty, respect and give to others. I got married in 2003 and I am the mother of 2 beautiful children: a 10-year-old girl and a 6-year old boy.
In 2001, I graduated from the Faculty of Psychology at Babes-Bolyai University and in early 2004, together with my husband, I moved to live and work in the UK, a country that welcomed us and gave us great opportunities to grow both personally and professionally.
For over 14 years I have worked with vulnerable children and families in the child protection field, fostering and adoption. My practice was underpinned by the values of care, respect, acceptance, empathy, and understanding of others. I have always worked towards building positive relationships, involving others in the decisions regarding their lives, offering practical support and empowering others to achieve better outcomes.
I am passionate about community development and I have been an active community member that reflects about its challenges, promotes its ideas and thinks of its influences. I have been a member of CWIC for the last 4 years and I feel inspired by the passion, strength, and generosity of the women from all over the world. The CWIC brings so much joy and support to each other.
Since 2018, I have been actively involved in the Cluj Food Waste Combat project and I lead on the ‘Eat Local’ campaign that promotes local fruit and vegetable production.
A few words that describe me are: animated and inspiring, highly sociable and lively, upbeat and lighthearted.
I am looking forward to more exciting experiences together.
Oana Garcia, Treasurer
Oana is a management consultant at EY (Ernst & Young) and specializes in data governance, data quality, and analytics. She has 15+ years experience in banking and marketing research consulting.
Apart from her main profession, Oana has a passion for diversity and has held various leadership positions in corporate employee networks (e.g. co-chair of Asian Network at Citigroup in New York).
She has participated in and organized many diversity events as well as corporate citizenship initiatives (e.g. Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement, Operation Hope); she has also been an active mentor, coach, and corporate trainer. Oana has an MBA in Global Sales Management from The University of Akron (Ohio, US) and a Bachelor in Business Administration from the Academy of Economic Studies (Bucharest, Romania).
She is originally from Romania and spent 15 years in the US. She and her family (husband Mario and daughters Maya, 6 and Kenzie, 2) moved to Cluj in the summer of 2017.
Laura Frantz, Secretary
I was born in the United States in the small town of Ashland in Southern Oregon. I grew up in the country riding horses and raising all manner of farm animals. This is where I raised my two daughters, Seena and Emma. They are all grown up and have turned in to remarkable women that I am proud to have raised and proud to know.
For the past 10 years, I worked as an Office Manager for a startup company that made electric motorcycles. Four years ago, we moved to Portland, Oregon for my husband’s work which just happened to have a location in Cluj! When the opportunity arose to come here, we jumped on it!
The main challenge I faced with the move was that I wasn’t working so it was hard to meet people. Thank goodness for the CIWC! I am now connected to women from all over the world and I get to know their stories, traditions, and talents. I look forward to contributing to this wonderful group.
Vasiliki Davleris, Membership
I am from Greece and I’ve lived in Cluj since 2010. I am a proud mom of two wonderful kids Ianis (8 years old) and Irini (4 years old). I studied economics in Greece and worked for 15 years in a construction company. I also got involved with traditional dancing (dancing since I was 6 years old in groups and teaching for 5 years).
I would like to get more involved with the wonderful things that CIWC does and help in any way I can.
Sara Chelbat, Communications
Hi, My name is Sara Chelbat. I’m 28 years old, Moroccan, I have one kid, Khalid. who is 2 years old. I moved to Cluj March 2016 with my husband, who is also from Morocco and working at Fujikura.
I’m an Industrial and Logistics engineer, staying now with my little toddler. I never thought I would leave my country to live in another place, but destiny brought me here where I’m enjoying my life with my small family and also my friends. Sometimes I feel sad a little bit because I miss family, sea, smells,…. but I feel surrounded by a new family who is my group of friends, and also Cluj is very friendly, now I feel my soul divided into two pieces, one in my country and the other here. I like traveling, crafting, chatting, and cooking.
I joined CIWC last April, I really liked it, meeting women from everywhere, chatting, exchanging knowledge and skills, now I feel it’s a part of me.
Pavla Holmgren, Activities
I was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, today Slovakia and I had a wonderful childhood thanks to my open and modern-minded parents. They taught me to be brave, to travel, to ask questions, to enjoy learning new things and to see the beauty in how different we all are.
Today I find myself here, in Cluj, living with my Swedish husband and two children, that were both born in Romania. We adopted this country as our second home, and we see all the beauty and challenges that it offers. Cluj is a wonderfully modern and constantly developing city, which is very friendly to foreigners. And then there is CIWC, a group of amazing, supportive and creative ladies. It was an honor to become a member of the board and be able to contribute by organizing different activities in this multicultural environment. I can use skills from my professional background, which is managing processes and their continuous improvement.
Charity Coordinator – Open Position,
The Charity Coordinator shall:
- set up criteria for determining an approved charity
- identify emergency needs and help the club address them
- prepare proposals for disbursement of funds
- find organizations where it would be possible for us to donate either our time, our expertise, our finances, or our goods
- seek ways to involve members in this
To learn more about the Charity Coordinator position, please contact the CIWC team.